ST. PAUL, Minn. - A prolonged, thunderous roar greeted Sarah Palin last night as the newest Republican star joined a long line of the party's media scourges, including former Maryland Gov. Spiro T. Agnew, who stood in her place 40 years ago.
Boos rained down when she added her voice to John McCain's new campaign counterattack against the news media in the aftermath of unflattering publicity about Palin and how she was chosen.
But in confidently introducing herself to the nation, the Republican vice presidential candidate chose another vice president, a Democrat, Harry S. Truman, as a model for comparison.
Palin offered a personal and, at times, corny self-portrait of herself as a common-sense product of small-town America who wants to join McCain in shaking up Washington.
At the same time, she came out swinging against the Democrats, giving ample proof that she will have no difficulty in fulfilling the running mate's traditional attack-dog role.
Palin, who often jabbed the air with her forefinger for emphasis, returned fire against Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, whom she quoted as having said that he couldn't stand McCain.
"Clearly what the majority leader was driving at is that he can't stand up to John McCain," she said. "That is only one more reason to take the maverick of the Senate and put him in the White House."
The 44-year-old Alaska governor described herself as "just your average hockey mom" with an ordinary family of five children that has "the same ups and downs as any other."
She was a forceful, and effective, advocate for McCain, who took a calculated risk in picking her. And with a homespun touch, she showed that she could slip a shiv into her opponent's side.
Referring to Barack Obama's famous campaign gaffe, recorded surreptitiously at a San Francisco fundraiser, Palin remarked that "in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening."
She also leavened her remarks with practiced humor, at one point delivering a line about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: "lipstick."
Palin, to be formally nominated for vice president today, was the main event of the evening, if not the entire convention.
